January 1, 2006

Yes

It is well known that the mass of a ballasted roof can reduce peak roof temperatures and delay the heat flow into a building. Although ballasted roofs perform similar functions they do not meet the traditional requirements of high solar reflectance and high thermal emittance set out by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other organizations regarding being a “cool roof.” To address whether ballasted roofing systems offer similar energy efficiency benefits as cool roofs, a project to perform side-by-side experiments was initiated. Data from these experiments will answer what impact a ballasted roof has on heat flow into a building and on roof surface temperature. Furthermore, comparisons between the ballasted and unballasted membranes will allow for an assessment of whether ballasted systems perform as well as white membranes and are deserving of a “cool roof” status within the codes.

Richard Gillenwater (Carlisle SynTec)
David Roodvoets (SPRI)

Proceedings of the 3rd International Building Physics Conference – Research in Building Physics and Building Engineering

Desjarlais, A., Petrie, T., Miller, W., Gillenwater, R., & Roodvoets, D. (2006). Evaluating the energy performance of ballasted roof systems. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Building Physics Conference – Research in Building Physics and Building Engineering (pp. 473-478). (Proceedings of the 3rd International Building Physics Conference – Research in Building Physics and Building Engineering).